


hidden track: sea

by plumstagram



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ben Hargreeves' Tentacles | Bentacles, Brotherly Affection, Codependency, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Good Sibling Ben Hargreeves, Good Sibling Klaus Hargreeves, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, No Apocalypse (Umbrella Academy), No Incest, Protective Siblings, THESE THESE KIDS WERE RAISED TOGETHER THEY ARE SIBLINGS!!!!, Vanya Hargreeves Deserves Better, ben hargreeves gets a hug!, fred and george weasley but make it traumatized ex-superheroes, klaus hargreeves gets a hug!, no beta we die like ben, the umbrella academy is surprised pikachu face that ben and klaus are besties: the fic, these tags look very distressing but i promise this is just a fixit and then Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24777319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumstagram/pseuds/plumstagram
Summary: Ben and Klaus have been literally attached to each other for over 10 years. It shows.Or, a series of vaguely chronically linear events where Ben and Klaus get up to non-incestuous funny business together, sometimes while their siblings non-incestuously watch.[Chapter Four: The Trials and Tribulations of Numbers One Through Three]
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & The Hargreeves
Comments: 33
Kudos: 296





	1. The Mysterious Disappearance of Vanya Hargreeves, part 1

**Author's Note:**

> i know im gonna get jossed by season 2 as i post but i'm just glad i'm done planning bc i'm actually kinda proud of this fic!! haha humble brag ik
> 
> also, sorry in advance for my fall out boy level taste in titles. they're all going to be Like That
> 
> my boy ben is SO underrated and ON GOD i'm getting him some screen time so. here's this fic. fellow ben-lovers i did this for u

Ben glowered at Luther, and put both his middle fingers up at him even though he was fully aware it would go completely unnoticed. Well. Mostly unnoticed.

From behind him, Klaus sniggered, but Ben only scowled harder. “Can you believe this asshole,” he hissed, “what a fucking hypocrite.” He turned to Klaus. “I’m checking on Vanya.” And with that, Ben vanished, bleeding back into existence in Vanya’s cell.

Vanya had her face shoved up to the glass window, and her whole body pressed against the door. Behind her, the foam spikes that covered the cell visibly twitched.

“I’m sorry!” she shrieked, slamming her fists against the unforgiving metal door, “I’m sorry I’m sorry please let me out _please don’t leave me please—_ ” her hair shifted, revealing vivid purple bruising on her neck. Ben stared. He had seen this kind of bruising before. Where had he— _Klaus._

“That fucker,” he snarled, reappearing at Klaus’ side, “Luther’s choked out Vanya too. Probably when she came home.” Klaus’ expression went from concern to to fury in the blink of an eye, but when he turned in Luther’s direction it was like he had never heard Ben say anything at all.

“Hey Luther,” Klaus said lightly, interrupting Diego, “wanna tell us how Vanya got in that cell? Because my favorite ghosty is telling me some, uh. _Interesting_ things about those bruises on her neck.”

Luther visibly paused, thrown for a loop. “I did what I had to do,” he said, chin tilted up like he was _proud_ of himself, “she’s dangerous.”

“Right,” Klaus rolled his eyes, “so you _had_ to strangle her when she came home because she was probably just worried about what she did. You realize that you can’t solve all your problems this way, right?”

“Hold up,” Diego said, “can we get back to the part when you thought choking out our sister was an okay thing to do? Because that sounds like a _big fucking problem_ to me.”

“We don’t know how powerful she is,” Luther insisted, “she could hurt someone.” Ben snorted, and so did Klaus.

“Ah right, like how you’ve broken me and Diego’s bones when you were younger,” Klaus said thoughtfully, mockingly rubbing his chin, “or when Diego nearly took out Allison’s eye, or when Ben almost killed—“

“That’s different,” Luther snapped, fully incensed, “we were kids— and _stop bringing up Ben!_ ”

“Why not?” Klaus challenged, before Allison shakily arrived at the scene, leaning against the wall, notepad in hand.

“I heard Mom say earlier that she’s fine,” Ben said, sidling up to Klaus’ side, “the only long-term effects are her voice, and maybe a scar.”

Klaus pursed his lips, and nodded a little. Ben glanced down to see Klaus flexing the fingers of his right hand. _Five_.

“I don’t know,” Ben shrugged, eyeing at the heavy-looking wheel on the vault door, “but he’s a good plan B for getting Vanya out.”

Evidently done arguing with everyone, Luther supported Allison against his side and headed to the stairs. “Let’s go,” he said, “Allison’s still injured.”

“Coming,” Klaus called back, before turning to Vanya’s tearstained face. She pounded her fists against the door with renewed desperation, but Klaus only shook his head. _Ten minutes_ , he mouthed, holding up his fingers. _Wait ten minutes_. 

“Klaus!” Luther shouted.

“I’m _coming!_ ”

Slowly, Vanya stopped banging against the door. She pressed her bloodless lips together, and nodded jerkily. Her knuckles were bruised the same color as her throat, and her clenched fists trembled. Feeling something in his heart twist, Ben half-phased through the door to press his intangible mouth against her forehead.

“Stay brave, Vanya,” Ben said quietly, as she stared through him and at Klaus’ retreating back. “We’ll be back soon.”


	2. The Mysterious Disappearance of Vanya Hargreeves, part 2

Sitting cross-legged on the ground right in front of the window of her vault— _cell_ — Vanya pressed a shaking hand against the cold metal of the door. So absorbed in determinedly not thinking about how trapped she was, she didn’t notice Klaus’ return until he crouched down in front of her, outside of her cell.

_Hello_ , he mouthed, waving the corresponding hand.

“Please,” Vanya whispered, scrambling to her feet. Her throat ached. She could still see Allison on the ground, bleeding out under her hands.

Klaus made a little heart with his hands. _Love you_ , he said, and Vanya couldn’t stop the strangled sob that escaped. She nodded miserably, and Klaus grinned and started talking to what looked like thin air.

Which meant that there was a ghost there. Which meant that Klaus was sober.

Vanya couldn’t remember the last time she saw Klaus sober. Maybe during Dad’s funeral? Then again, she hasn’t seen him much in the past decade, so maybe it wasn’t as strange as her brain was making it out to be.

As Klaus strained to turn the vault door wheel, it suddenly occurred to Vanya that Klaus was probably the last person capable of getting her out. He was the physically weakest (bar Vanya herself) of the Umbrella Academy, and his already lacking strength would have only been diminished by almost twenty years of heavy drug abuse.

“Fuck,” she whispered to herself, and clasped her shaking hands together in an effort to try and stop being so goddamn _scared_.

Several long minutes passed, and Vanya had almost given up on the idea of escaping her cell altogether until something—or some _one_ — flickered blue beside Klaus. Vanya stared, wide-eyed as the heavy door swung open.

“Hey, Vanya,” said Ben, “ready to get out of here?”

* * *

When Five finally got back home he would’ve taken a knife to the eye if he hadn’t teleported a few feet to the left. “You need to relax,” he told Diego, who seemed unreasonably twitchy for someone eating a sandwich.

"And you need to knock some sense into Luther,” Diego said, polishing off his sandwich in one bite. He motioned Five upstairs, and slammed open Allison’s bedroom door. “Tell Luther he’s a dick for locking Vanya in a soundproof cell in the basement.”

“You did _what?_ ” Five snarled, teleporting right up to Luther, who apparently hadn’t learned to be less of a daddy’s boy at _all_ in the last seventeen years.

“She’s got powers,” Luther insisted, “and she doesn’t have any control. She almost killed Allison!”

Five raised an eyebrow at Allison’s bandaged throat, to which she responded to by pulling out a notepad, flipping to the first page, then the second: _let her go. my fault._

“Allison,” Luther put his hand on her shoulder, earnestly concerned, “I just don’t want her to hurt anyone more than she already has.”

Allison looked him dead in the face, and got out of bed and away from him with a hard expression. She scribbled on her notepad: _get her out, Five._

And with that, Five vanished to the sound of Luther’s protests and Diego’s laughter.

* * *

“First of all, you had no right to be locking Vanya in that fucking _cell_ , you’re not _Dad_ ,” Five declared when he reappeared back in Allison’s room a minute later, “and second of all, she’s not in there. The door’s open.”

“ _What?_ ” Luther stood up, alarmed. “How did she get out?”

Five surveyed the room. “Here’s a better question,” he said, “where’s Klaus?"

* * *

Moments later, two-thirds of the living Umbrella Academy opened Klaus’ bedroom door to the sight of Klaus and Vanya sitting on the bed, quietly drinking tea.


	3. Additional Tags: Klaus Hargreeves Gets a Hug

The verbal beatdown Five delivered to Luther’s Dad-idolizing, sibling-strangling, little bitch ass was probably the best thing that’s happened to Ben since he punched Klaus in the face. Which was saying something, because Ben’s wanted to slap Klaus a good one basically ever since his untimely demise at the hands— uh, tentacles of his inter-dimensional eldritch roommate. Body-mate. Whatever.

He said as much to Klaus, who snickered. “Technically, it _is_ your roommate because it’s always in the same room as you,” he said, rocking on his heels. And then he got a weird look on his face that immediately set off all of Ben’s well-honed Klaus alarms.

“No,” Ben said sternly, “it’s a bad idea.”

Klaus shot him a wide-eyed, innocent look. “You haven’t even heard it yet!”

“It’s going to be a bad idea.”

“Hey, some of my so-called ‘bad ideas’,” Klaus said, rolling his eyes, “were genius. Remember that time with the kabobs and the firecrackers?”

“You got the shit beaten out of you,” Ben pointed out, entirely failing to mention that Klaus came out of the fight in significantly better shape than the guy who started it.

“So? Tell me it _wasn’t_ the best birthday party we’ve ever had.”

Ben paused, because he couldn’t really argue with that. Klaus grinned triumphantly, before turning his attention back to Vanya, who was talking quietly with Five and Allison. He waggled his fingers at her, and she looked up and smiled shyly at him.

Talking to Vanya went a lot better than Ben thought it would (not that he was expecting to talk to any of his non-Klaus siblings so soon). Sure, it took like ten minutes for the three of them to stop crying all over each other, but it was worth it to be able to do it at all. Vanya confessed that she did, in fact, have potentially-lethal powers, and in turn Klaus quietly told her about the mausoleum down the road.

In hindsight, if Ben had known that he could physically prod Klaus into talking about his problems, he would have tried _way_ harder to convince Klaus to get sober. Not that Ben didn’t do his best! But there just… a point where Ben kinda just. Gave up, and rolled with the problems as they came instead of trying to prevent them. Klaus was a force of nature all on his own, and once he convinced himself of something there was no changing his mind, just mitigating the damage. _That’s an excuse,_ he chided himself, but quickly brushed the thought away. There was nothing to do about it now.

“—stay in the house,” Five said. Diego looked disgruntled, which wasn’t new, but Vanya’s skeptical face was.

“I have violin lessons to teach,” she said dubiously, “and a job to go to.”

“That’s fine,” Five said dismissively, waving his hand, “you don’t have to stop those, but it might be better if you could live in the house until you figure out your powers.”

“What,” Ben said flatly. “This house is nightmare fuel for all of us, _especially_ Vanya. Tell Five he’s being stupid.”

Klaus, equally annoyed by this turn of events, muttered a “yeah, sure,” to Ben before raising his voice. “Have you considered that this house is extremely traumatizing,” he said loudly, “and that none of us actually want to live here.”

“I’m fine with training here,” Vanya said, looking grateful that Klaus had brought that up, “but I’d really rather not stay here.”

Five was quiet for a moment. “Fine,” he said, and huffed. “I need to go double check that the apocalypse is really over. _Don’t_ do anything stupid,” he snarled at Luther, who was stiffly sitting on the couch, glaring at everyone else. Luther didn’t reply, and Five disappeared in a blue flash.

“Oh,” Vanya said, staring at where Five used to be, “he wanted— huh.” She turned her attention to Klaus. “Klaus, you and— uh, you can stay with me if you want,” she offered.

Klaus lit up. “Really? Are you sure? I promise I won’t take up too much space, and I can help cook, and—”

“It’s fine,” Vanya smiled, and tacked on, “Five might be there too, though, so I not sure how sleeping arrangements will work out.”

Klaus shrugged flippantly. “I can sleep on the floor, I don’t care. And it’s not like Five takes up much space anyways.” Ben snorted, and so did Allison.

_Don’t let him catch you saying that,_ Allison warned, but she was smiling. Then she scribbled on her notepad again. _Any chance there’s an apartment for rent in your building?_ she asked, giving Vanya a sideways grin. Vanya beamed back, eyes suspiciously shiny.

“I’ll look into it,” she promised.

Diego had been quiet for some time, so Ben walked over to him. Diego’s face was disconcertedly blank. “Klaus,” he said without turning around, “I think— Diego’s cop friend?”

“Oh shit,” Klaus said out loud, and everyone looked at him. “Diego, that lady cop that broke me out— is she okay?”

“Broke you out?” Diego unfolded his arms.

“Yeah! You know, like a jailbreak, but with Five’s coworkers.”

_Five’s coworkers?_ Allison asked, concerned.

Klaus’ gaze flickered over to Ben. “Tell them, you idiot,” Ben said firmly.

“Welllll…” Klaus started, shifting nervously, “you know how our house got broken into?”

Everyone nodded. “I, uh. got an _exclusive_ invitation to their let’s-find-out-where-Five-is club.” He laughed a little hysterically. “It was. Not the wildest time I’ve had in a motel room. Diego’s cop friend ended up busting me out, but I.” Klaus looked down, a little ashamed, “I left her behind. is she okay?”

Diego’s facade cracked for a moment in unbridled rage before Vanya interrupted. “Are you okay? What did they do?” She scanned him up and down, “are you injured?”

“Oh! Um, not anymore,” Klaus said, looking relieved that Diego hadn’t done anything, “I stole their time-traveling briefcase and chilled out in Vietnam for 10 months. I’m good.” Ben stared at him incredulously. _Chilled out?_

“But you _were_ injured?” Vanya pressed on, frowning.

“That’s not important,” Klaus waved off, “Diego? Is she okay?”

Diego finally relaxed a little, heaving a sigh. “She’ll be fine. She’ll be in the hospital for a while, but she’ll make a full recovery.” He leveled his gaze at Klaus. “Klaus. Did they torture you?”

Klaus didn’t say anything, and Allison made a sad noise, low in her throat. Vanya’s face crumpled, and Diego pressed his lips together so hard they turned white. From the sidelines, Luther had stopped glaring entirely.

_Let Mom check you over? Just in case_ , Allison wrote, gently taking Klaus’ hand. Klaus looked like he was going to protest so Ben shot him a _look_ , tilting his chin towards Allison’s teary eyes. Klaus nodded slowly, and then startled as Vanya threw herself at him for a hug. Allison’s lips quirked up, and she dropped her notebook and pen on the ground in favor of joining the hug. Ben cocked his head to one side, watching them, and then walked over to Diego and phased though his body. Diego shuddered a little, and stepped forward hesitantly to join the hug as well. 

From outside the group hug, Ben watched contently as Klaus’ head popped out of the top of the hug, mouthing _thanks_. Ben only smiled, shoving his hands in his hoodie pocket as their family became a little more whole.


	4. The Trials and Tribulations of Numbers One Through Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if you've read my one other umbrella academy fic, this and the next chapter are gonna look Real familiar. and that's bc i copy pasted them with some minor revisions towards the ending bits (in the next chapter). i hope that's cool bc i really wanted this fic to be 11 chapters long

**1\. fahrenheit 451 in relation to benjamin hargreeves**

“I think you have an arson problem,” Ben said, watching as _Ender’s Game_ slowly burned, charring the hardwood floor in the process.

Face-down on the floor, Klaus turned his head to look at Ben. “Why, are you complaining?”

“No, I’m just remembering that time you almost gave yourself smoke inhalation because you burned twenty-nine candles with the windows and door shut,” Ben deadpanned, poking at the book. His finger went straight though. “Who were you trying to summon, anyways?”

Klaus didn’t say anything, but he suddenly seemed nervous. Not nervous. Scared, maybe. Readjusting his legs, Ben waited patiently. He tugged on his hoodie strings, and absentmindedly went over the list of movies he wanted to watch. It was improbably extensive. Maybe he could bother Klaus into bothering Allison into getting them Webflix.

Klaus sighed deeply, and turned his face back down to the floor, muffling his voice. “I was trying to summon the others. Who died.”

It took a second for Ben to understand. “Did you?” he asked carefully. The other 36 had always been a taboo topic, but moreso for Klaus than the others.

Klaus turned over entirely, and stared into the fire. “Yeah.”

“Is that when _they_ bother you?”

_They_ being very small a handful of ghosts that, for some literally godforsaken reason, are capable of tracking Klaus down.

Okay. An explanation: ghosts tend to get a little obsessive over Klaus when they realize he can see them, but generally ghosts stick to a specific area or person. They stay there until they fade away, which takes a _stupidly_ long time (Ben kind of wants to punch God, or Satan, or whoever’s responsible for that genius idea). To Ben’s knowledge, _they_ are the only ghosts that can regularly leave their haunting grounds.

However, _they_ are also part of the thirty-six super powered kids that Dad didn’t traumatize for life, which meant that they obviously needed to be traumatized in other ways. Or maybe God just had it out for people with superpowers, but then again, isn’t She the one who made them? Vaguely annoyed, Ben forcibly dragged his attention from the weird tangent it went on.

Klaus breathed slowly, and scrunched up the pillow in his hands. “Not really,” he said finally, looking straight up at the ceiling, “bleeding-eyes and cat-boy just showed up one day, but burns-girl, cloud-boy, and the shapeshifter came after.” He sat up, fidgeting with the pillow’s tassels. “I summoned all the dead kids, but most of them didn’t give a shit and left. Burns-girl…”

Ben closed his eyes. “Yeah.”

The two of them sat in silence.

“Well, on the bright side,” Ben said slowly, as the thought occurred to him, “I’m pretty sure the Horror can shred them if they come back again.”

Klaus froze for a long moment, processing. Then he sat bolt upright. “Fuck! You’re right!” He laughed, a little maniacal. “We can get rid of them!” Klaus jumped to his feet, almost stumbling with the force of his excitement, “Fuck! Yes! Ben. You’re a genius and I love you. I’m getting you another book.”

Ben grinned, and stuck his hand into the fire, picking up _Ender’s Game_ just as it finished disintegrating. “Sounds good to me.”

—

“Can you hurry it up,” Klaus complained, sitting with his back to a shelf as Ben crouched down to look through the bottom row of books.

“No, shut up,” Ben said. Wait, that title looked interesting. “Klaus, can you open up this one?”

For the millionth time since they entered the library, Klaus sighed dramatically, yanking the book out of its place and opening to a random page. It took Ben about two seconds to read some dialogue and realize that it was a shit book. “You can put it back.”

“Benny,” Klaus said seriously, shoving the book back in place, “I’m ever-so-grateful for you and the Horror’s services in keeping murderous dead children away from me, but if you don’t pick out a book soon I’m pushing this bookshelf over and lighting the whole thing on fire.”

Ben turned and squinted at Klaus. “Are you _sure_ you don’t have an arson problem?”

Klaus stared at him. “Fuck you.”

“What?” Luther asked, stepping between the shelves confusedly, “Were you talking to me?”

Klaus heaved a sigh, and got to his feet. “No, Luther, I’m not talking to you.”

Luther furrowed his brow. His book looked comically small in his hand. “Then who were you talking to?”

“I was talking to an indecisive asshole that needs to pick a book before I leave to go do _literally anything else,_ ” Klaus said waspishly, giving Ben a death glare.

“Just a sec,” Ben said distractedly, scanning the shelf. If he remembered right, there should be a— there!

Klaus made a derisive noise, and snatched up the book. “Alright, time to go.”

Leaving the library, both of them ignored the puzzled “Klaus?” that came from behind them.

* * *

**2\. ben is an asshole part 239478**

“Klaus. Get up.”

Klaus rolled over. “F’ckoff B’n,” he groaned, stuffing his face into the pillow.

Ben ignored him, sticking his index finger into Klaus’ cheek. “Get up.”

Klaus only groaned again, and tucked his face firmly into the seam of the uncomfortable looking couch. “G’way.”

Ben eyed the clock again. It was almost ten and he was _bored._ Rolling his eyes, Ben stuck his entire hand wrist-deep into Klaus’ torso.

“FUCK!” Klaus resurfaced, drawing his entire body up to the arm of the couch. “You know I hate that, you asshole,” he hissed, rubbing his eyes.

“Stop being a baby, I’m bored,” Ben complained, and sat down on a lacquered wooden coffee table that probably cost more than that weird golden dick statue Klaus pawned a while back.

Klaus tucked his head into the crook of his arm, and attempted to go back to sleep. Ben rolled his eyes _again_ , and stuck half his right leg into Klaus.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” Klaus yelled, eyes snapping open, “WOULD YOU CUT—” Ben stuck his leg out even further, “—THAT SHIT—” Ben got up and sat in Klaus, “ _—OUT?_ ”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Diego asked flatly from the entrance of the room, full bondage gear on as always. From his point of view, it probably looked like Klaus was having a particularly loud seizure.

Klaus threw himself off the couch and adjusted his clothes, glaring. “Ben sat in me,” he said petulantly, and Ben gave him his best innocent smile. Klaus flipped him off.

Diego didn’t say a word, but his disapproving look spoke volumes.

“Ben, do it at eight next time, Klaus sleeps too much anyways,” Five said, sweeping by with a steaming cup of coffee. Diego stared at him incredulously.

Ben grinned. He wasn’t used to being acknowledged by his not-Klaus siblings, so being spoken to was a nice change. And at any rate, he missed Five. “Will do,” he said, saluting in Five’s direction so sloppily that Klaus cringed a little.

“Ben’s asking to get his favorite sibling privileges revoked,” Klaus grumbled, and Ben could see Five smirk from where he was pouring whiskey in his coffee.

“Wait,” Diego snapped, looking between Klaus and Five, “Five, Klaus can’t—” Five walked out of the room, completely ignoring Diego, “—Five!”

Diego turned his gaze onto Klaus. “Klaus,” he said reproachfully.

Klaus and Ben exchanged a look. Ben shrugged, heading out after Five, and Klaus unhurriedly stretched out his arms and followed. “Ah, looks like it’s time for me to go,” Klaus said, dramatically checking his nonexistent watch.

“Wait— Klaus—” Diego faltered, suddenly uncertain. “You—”

“Bye!” Klaus said cheerfully, and as he left the room, Ben twisted around and waved for him. Ducking his head down into his hoodie, Ben huffed a laugh at Diego’s dumbfounded expression. Klaus shot a lazy grin at Ben, and the two of them went upstairs.

* * *

**3\. aha trauma who idk a trauma**

"And put it— in— the oven— for— aw, shit. Almost made it the whole way through and everything," Klaus groaned, flopping on his side dramatically.

Ben leaned back on his hands. He thought he could almost feel the floor. "Hey, you're doing way better than we started," he said encouragingly, uncrossing his legs to nudge Klaus' skirt with his toe, "two weeks ago we only touched every five-ish claps, and now we can almost get through the whole song! That's amazing progress!"

"Auhghrgggg," Klaus said, rolling over because he didn't know how to take genuine praise.

"C'mon, Klaus, one more time. Let's try to make it the whole way through and then maybe you can get some food."

"Ugh, fine," Klaus said, sitting back up and crossing his legs. The bottoms of his feet were dirty, but his bright red toenails were immaculately painted the same color as Ben's fingernails, because Klaus was really getting the hang of this corporeality thing. Maybe the floor by Ben's closet would never be the same, but it was definitely worth it to see Klaus' delighted expression every time he caught sight of Ben's nails, like a physical reminder (Well. In a sense.) that Klaus' powers could do good things, too.

"Alright— patty— cake— patty— cake— ba-ker's— man. Bake me— a cake as— fast as— oh hey Ally."

Ben looked up. Allison was standing next to them, watching Ben with a perplexed expression. She held up her notebook. _What's going on?_

Klaus slowly set his hands back in his lap, and glanced at Ben. He looked back up at Allison, smilingly nervously. "Uh, nothing much? Just playing a game, you know how it is."

Allison furrowed her brow. She looked at Ben (or more likely, the spot of floor Ben was sitting on), and then around the room like she might catch someone peeking out from behind the furniture. She raised her notebook again. _But it sounded like two people were playing?_

Klaus and Ben looked at each other for a long moment. "Uh, you don't see anyone else here?" Klaus asked as his fist clenched, faintly glowing blue. Ben waved a hand in front of Allison's face.

The woman in question shook her head, looking at Klaus oddly. Ben reached over and pinched Klaus' shirt, giving it a sharp tug. Allison's eyes darted over to the motion, but she didn't spare Ben a single glance.

"....Huh." Klaus got to his feet and smoothed out his skirt. "Well. I'm just gonna. Go." He strode out of the room, and Ben nudged Allison's shoulder when she made to follow. She whirled around, but no one was there.

—

"What the fuck," Klaus said to the ceiling, draped over three kitchen stools. "You were there! You could touch things! How did she not see you!"

“It’s probably harder to make me visible to others because I’m already visible to you,” Ben offered.

Klaus turned his head to stare at Ben balefully, and then threw himself on the ground. "How do I make you look _more_ visible,” he complained. “You look perfectly visible to me.”

Ben crouched down, and then shuffled forward a few inches when it was clear Klaus wasn't intending on getting up. "You know, I might be a ghost but I don't actually know _everything_ about your powers," he said, fixing his gaze on Klaus' peeved expression. "It kinda sucks that we didn't realize I could be invisible and corporeal sooner, but at least we know now."

Ben licked his lips nervously and thought about what he was going to say next very carefully. "I think— maybe we should— rope someone else into this. Just so we have someone that can tell us if I'm visible or not."

Klaus snorted. "Yeah, no."

Ben opened his mouth to protest, but stopped himself. His eyes darted to the faintly yellow bruise creeping out of the collar of Klaus' shirt, and he looked away quickly. Last time Ben had asked Klaus to involve their siblings in something Klaus had— left Ben alone. Had left Ben standing next to standing next to Klaus' empty, _dead_ body as Luther got it on with some furry a couple yards away and Ben was _by himself,_ standing over Klaus like he was just taking a nap in an empty alleyway while Ben stood guard for whoever the hell might bother a skinny skirt-wearing homeless druggie pansexual. And then Ben was screaming, soundless over the noise of the club and trying to shake Klaus like there was some jackass coming over with greedy hands and a knife for Klaus' coat or money or mouth.

Ben bit his lip. "Okay," he said. "We can practice with that mirror in your room, then."

Klaus tipped his head in Ben's direction. His hands glowed blue, and he sat up and reached for Ben's hand.

They sat there, holding hands until Mom came in and asked what Klaus wanted for dinner.

**Author's Note:**

> title courtesy of the one and only bangtan sonyeondan, or kings of pop bts to the rest of u. the lyrics are SUPER fitting for ben and klaus, plus klaus being the only one who can see ben? and the whole thing about ben wanting to see the ocean?? hidden track??? sea???? my galaxy brain
> 
> not that anyone wants to know but i almost titled it "our dawn is hotter than day" which is a song by seventeen bc i am degenerate kpoppie but the lyrics don't fit://
> 
> tell me what u like!! lmk if i need to tag smth!! talk to me in the comments!!!  
> everyone, thank u for reading! come talk to me on instagram (@pl.mxi) or twitter (@plumstagram) :D


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